BOOKS: The Art of Branding the Arts

Published on November 21, 2006.

From C/ID
From the U.K.'s Laurence King Publishing, now distributed in the U.S. by Chronicle Books, C/ID: Visual Identity and Branding for the Arts is a $40 hardcover designed and edited by Pentagram's Angus Hyland, with text by Emily King. "Following the explosion of identity design in the arts and the reinvention of the art gallery/museum as a brand," notes the publisher, C/ID "provides a survey of recent and current design work for cultural clients, including galleries, museums, theaters and auditoriums. The focus is on new identities and their application, as well as smaller design solutions such as gallery guides, promotional programs (incorporating everything from posters to ad campaigns), exhibition catalogs, branded merchandising, web sites, signage systems, renovated environments, new galleries, extensions and completely new buildings." The 30 international case studies featured include New York's Public Theater, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Steadelijk Museum CS, Amsterdam, and Moderna Museet, Stockholm. Seen here is a detail of a poster, from London's Barnbrook Design, for "Happiness: A Survival Guide for Art + Life," the October 2003 inaugural exhibition of Tokyo's Mori Art Museum. In the PDF is a shot of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, whose identity was created by New York's 2x4. Click here for more info.